Ace Hotel, New Orleans, USA

The mysticism of New Orleans has long drawn in the crowds, what with its confluence of French, Spanish, Creole, jazz and folkloric influences. Considered a party town, what better way to enjoy the city’s storied culture than at the Ace Hotel, situated at its downtown core. Surrounded by art galleries, museums, cocktail bars and a quick step away from the French Quarter, Ace Hotel’s NOLA home is located within a nine-storey building that dates back to 1928.

Inside, the spaces have been carefully designed by Roman and Williams, who played up the building’s provenance by filling it with vintage colour tones and found objects in each corner. In the lobby, original terrazzo floors are offset by a mix of custom and found lighting fixtures that glow overhead. Upstairs, each of the guestrooms is elegantly adorned with painted wooden armoires, modernist furniture and charcoal grey matelesse coverlets that are stitched with patterns inspired by French Abstraction in the 1920s. Of course being an Ace Hotel, food, drink and entertainment are every bit as important as the design of the place itself.

Guests can enjoy hearty fare at Josephine Estelle, an osteria-style restaurant that trades on the flavours of the American South, coffee at the in-house outpost of Stumptown Coffee Roasters, cocktails and poolside grub at Alto, the hotel’s rooftop garden, or while the night away at the Three Keys, it’s in-house music venue, which houses a rotating selection of concerts, film screenings and burlesque performances.